1. Technical Field
The technical field relates generally to transcription of content and, more particularly, to systems and methods that automatically manipulate characteristics of captions displayed in association with media files.
2. Background Discussion
Conventional caption placement processes position captions (open or closed) within a default region located at the center and the bottom of video frames. The default region is generally suitable for caption placement because the default region is often free of essential information for the viewer. Therefore, it is often the case that caption text may be superimposed over this default region of the video frames without impairing the viewer's ability to observe and comprehend the information provided in the video frames.
However, there are some video frames that include essential information within the default region. In fact, some FCC regulations proposed under the 21rst Century Video Accessibility Act include standards for placement of captions that address the video frames with essential information in the default region. For example, according to these standards, if a viewer is watching a documentary and there is text in the bottom of the screen that states who the speaker is and what their profession is, closed captioning cannot be placed over this text, as it would obscure the information.
Presently available caption formats support specification of the location of the caption on the video frame. These formats also support specification of the timing of the caption text (which should be synchronized with the speech and sounds which are being captioned), as well as the style of the text (e.g. font, color and size).